We asked freshmen what the biggest surprise of college is

‘My CSE class was way harder than I thought. Like, you never have suicidal thoughts until you actually enter that class’

Twelve years of grade school and sage advice from older friends can only prepare you for so much. We talked to freshmen at MSU to see what really stood out, for better or worse, when they arrived on campus.

Ivon Hernandez, Pre-Med and Juan Figueroa, Mechanical Engineering

“It’s way tougher waking up earlier here than it was in high school when you did it every day.”

“It was harder than we thought.”

Mishelle Herrera, Business

“My CSE class was way harder than I thought. Like, you never have suicidal thoughts until you actually enter that class.”

Sean Angelini, Undecided

“How much free time you have between classes.”
What do you do with all that free time?
“Not study. It’s sleeping, most of it.”

Janea Shorter

“Exams every week, waking up early, and that the teacher’s not going to be able to do stuff for you anymore.”

Alyssa Frank, Marketing

“What surprised me the most about freshman year was probably how much studying you have to do. I mean, everyone tells you that you study a lot, but I didn’t think it was going to be as hard as it is.”

Hong Bin, Business

“No one in school on Thanksgiving Day.”

Alex Rogosch, Psychology

“For me I think the thing that surprised me is just the sheer amount of people being different, seeing different people every day.”

Genevieve Redgate, Pre-Vet

“The amount of free time you have.”

Rachel Filip, Neuroscience

“Probably the level of maturity that was expected, like how much they expect you to do on your own time.”

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